BATTLE OF MESSINES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1917, Page 10

BATTLE OF MESSINES.

'I'AHT OF GKICAT STRATEGIC MOVl'.

KOLLIXG BACK THE HUN LEGIONS.

Writes the military commentator of tho'X.Z. Times:—

J.l.e _ Britixli General has struck his ''«"• hi the Sorlb. with tremendoous I'llect, justifying the signs 0 f the last few days. During these davs the expectant interest gradually turned north jn>m the IJullecourt-Scarpe sector, and the perplexity of the enemy win very evident • Where, on the long front of loinbardineiit, was (he British blow to descend? The enemy knows'now. He is looking at the place where, the blow toll, nine miles of front held since October, 1014 This is the answer to the Kaiser's pretence of the end of the British ollensive. It is also revenge of the most terrible for the awful days of Ypres m the great days of 1014 The magnificent soldiery of Britain then held the ground' against (lie outnumbering German hosts and, their enormous artillery superiority, under the eye of the Kaiser, replying with cheers' and riflefire to his frantic shouts of "Calais!" To-day the British gave him back his artillery play, exploded mines under him, and stormed him out of his positions without any delay at the very first onset. To crown iiis disgrace hie bulletin pretends that there was nothing more than an artillery duel of great intensity!

This is the main news of the day, Nothing else matters in comparison. The British General has wiped out the Ypres salient, which lias annoyed him for 32 months. It was the strongest position in all the long German line irom the sea to Switzerland. It had been fortified in eycry possible way, and guns of the greatest calibre, with every kind of weapon in the modern armoury, had been massed with vast storen of high-explosive munitions. It was another impregnable fortress of the German system, < sheltering innumerable troops for a staggering advance at the proper time. The enemy, in fact, crouched there for a spring forward to. invade England with accompanying dehige of every horror imaginable and otherwise.

The British General said nothing. But he was not waiting patiently for any spring of the German tiger. A year ago he began to mine towards the enemy—a subterranean reply to his submarine piracy. At the "same time ho struck at the enemy on the Sojnme. The battle lasted there for oyer six months and more. The New Year saw it going, when the enemy scornfully declared the 'battle over. The attack grew stronger, position after position fell, until the enemy, after losing his strongest positions—which, to his intense surprise and huge mortification, were stormed one after another with terrific slaughter of the defenders and a mastery absolutely dohiinating and a skilful play of .strategy bafl'limr at every point—was forced to abandon his line's and retreat in search of sonic position in wMch he could fight to better advantage. But all the time the mining went on under the great salient.

The enemy, driven from the Somme and the Ancre, the British followed him fiercely, making nothing of the start he boasted the evasion had given him They overtook him before his"new shelter was ready to protect him. But before they closcd«on this line, on which the.y annoyed him vastly, they struck him in a new place. At Arras and Vimy he was in all his old strength of long preparation, impregnable as those 'positions out of which he had been flung, despite the efforts of his choicest battalions. And from before Arras and from the Vimy "Ridge he was flung with overwhelming/force And all the time the mines kept creeping up under the salient of Ypres, revenge striking daily in the picks of the miners, and massing in hundreds of tons of the newest, most devastating explosive. The British General struck again a terrific blow after a perfectly staggering bombardment, holding the mastery of the air anil pressing forward his line. Fresnoy, Gavrelle, Mouchy, Guemappes, Croiselles, formed his new line, and he prepared .for striking at the great hinge of the enemy's position at Biillecourt. And all the while the miners plied their picks, extending their tunnels towards, the Ypres salient, getting their great explosives nearer his tyorks, and never did he suspect the fate in store for him. The British General made his vast onslaught on Bullecourt in the very heart of the great German hinge, hamered at it for weeks, sent in gallant troops to the storming, line after line and day after day. The guns boomed, the infantry fought, Bullecourt fell after Homeric fighting. And all the while tl|e picks tapped their w'ay towards the salient of Ypres, and the tons oi explosives began to get, into position, and never an inkling did the enemy, have. His spies and their system never revealed a'tittle of the British ••plan." The sleep of the efficient blonde beast remained unbroken in the salient.

The final taps of the picks had to be delivered, the last pound of the 500 tons of explosive had to he laid in its appointed place. The time for the touch off was near, and still the sleep, of the salient remained unbroken. Daily raids weeks reconnoitred the enemy, but he never really awakened. The raids made the British', soldiery familiar with every corner of Iris stronghold, but he never suspected, boasting that he was continuing to repel attacks. The British General filled in the time remaining by improving his,-positions from Lens to Bullecourt, extending menaces southwards towards St. Quentin. The enemy continued his perplexity. The time arrived at last. The picks ceased, the explosives were in place, a great bombardrhent was opened on the doomed salient of Ypros. The garrisons were cut off, starved, shaken. The ■ works and entanglements were flattened and hammered out of existence. Suddenly the button was pressed— pressed after a year's preparation —and the mines exploded the works on the salient of Ypros with a roar such as was never heard in battle before. The infantry went at once "over the parapet"—English, New Zoalanders, Australians, Irish, advanced side by side against the salient of Ypres, fighting with grand emulation. The round rocked, the sky was aflame, the air was vibrant with ear-splitting noise. Never was'the like of that inferno seen in war. They moved on regardless, striking the enemy, charging, fighting, making (lie pace 'hot. Messines,- the post of honour, was stormed by the\Australians and New Zenlanders in a little over an hour and a-half. The long-dreaded Oibrullai' was in their strong hands. The battle is not over, but the result is beyond doubt. The enemy has lost between nine and twelve miles of his very strongest front. He has lost the command of the situation. He is open to overwhelming assaujt- His

line in Minders is menaced as it never lias been, since the British, coming up from (he Aisue in that awful autumn of 10.14, drove it over the Yser. In comparison with that, what are 5000 prisoners and captured guns uncounted? Very pleasant concomitants certainly, lint the tottering of the German line is the note that hums.

The Belgian artillery north of Ypres we note is adding to the roar of bombardment from Dixnnide to Ypres, and the Belgian infantry is ready to spring into the battle. 'At ;the 'same time that suggestive report of Sir Douglas Haig, of the capture of all the objectives from the Boucher, to the Scarpe, comes uppermost, and shows us the possibility of vastly extended operations. In fact, the flame of that mighty explosion in the salient of Ypres has revealed a huge horizon of war. The French are watchi' g it, while they repel attacks in th., Aisne plateau,' and it is not improbable the flaming outburst of the north may be for them an expected signal. It is possible the northern head of the German line may be driven across Flanders—in that ease then, a tremendous fire is certain to be opened on their northern flank from the sea, from Nicuport to Ostend. If the enemy is swept off the Flemish coast, all things will be possible for the fleet, and what the fleet will then do will be decisive. Truly the victory of Messincs has* suddenly changed the face of things. One thing stands out clear. It is that the British general did not choose the strongest of all the German positions for the objective of his tremendous move, for local reasons. He did it "as part of a great strategic move, of which we are bound to sec the rapid development at once.

All the invertebrates have been feed-] ing- us up with Hindenburg's plots and plans, with unhindered operations of the German machine, with a general, implication that the enemy has the situation in hand for ever. ' What will they say now, after the British has taken command of the situation by breaking out in a new place?